Just a day after President Joe Biden announced he would not seek re-election, Democratic fundraising surged, bringing in $100 million from donors through its primary fundraising platform.
ActBlue, a political action committee that supports Democratic organizations, reported this substantial amount over a two-day period, as tracked by Ryan Murphy of The Marshall Project. This figure, while unofficial and based on ActBlue’s overall donation tallies since its inception in 2004, offers insight into the group’s financial performance ahead of mandatory disclosures.
On Sunday alone, contributors donated $66.9 million to the launch of Vice President Kamala Harris’s presidential campaign, marking the largest fundraising day for ActBlue in the 2024 cycle. The previous record for donations in recent history was on September 30, 2020, coinciding with the first presidential debate between Biden and Trump, according to Murphy’s tracker.
As a result of the donation surge on Sunday, ActBlue reached a milestone of $14 billion raised since its founding two decades ago. In contrast, WinRed, the Republican counterpart that started in late 2019, has accumulated approximately $4.3 billion in donations, as per OpenSecrets data.
ActBlue expressed excitement about the influx of first-time donors on social media, highlighting the growing grassroots support. Future Forward, a super PAC aligned with Biden, announced it received $150 million in new commitments from prominent donors within a day of Biden’s statement and endorsement of Harris. Swing Left, which formed a fund to support the eventual Democratic nominee, reported raising over $160,000 in the same time frame.
Roger Altman, founder of Evercore, indicated on Monday that Harris’s campaign would be “very well financed” and confirmed his support for her. Prominent Democratic donors George and Alex Soros have also shown their backing for Harris.
In the past, Biden’s strongest fundraising days followed his criticism from Trump during a debate. After being challenged on June 27, Biden and his campaigns raised around $28 million by June 28. Additionally, he raised $19.2 million following Trump’s conviction on 34 felony counts. Trump’s campaign saw an influx of $69 million between his conviction date on May 30 and May 31, briefly causing a crash of his campaign website. His aligned super PAC, Make America Great Again Inc., raised $70 million that month.
From April through June, pro-Biden organizations raised $332.4 million while pro-Trump groups totaled $431.2 million, according to The Financial Times. By the end of June, Biden had $281 million in hand compared to Trump’s $336.2 million.